Edith Luckett

Edith Prescott Luckett was born on July 16, 1888, in Petersburg, Virginia, the ninth and last child of Sarah Frances (née Whitlock) and Charles Edward Luckett. Her father's employment with the Adams Express Company brought the family to Washington, D.C., where she was raised. Known by the nickname "Lucky," Luckett began performing on stage in Baltimore at the age of 13, and by 18 had relocated to New York City to pursue her career.

Luckett worked as a film and Broadway stage actress from the 1900s through the 1920s. Her screen appearances included The Little Jewess (1914), The Coming Power (1914), The Spirit of the Poppy (1914), and The Other Girl (1915). Alongside her film work, she performed with regional stock companies along the East Coast and built professional relationships with figures including Walter Huston, George M. Cohan, Spencer Tracy, Zasu Pitts, Louis Calhern, David Belasco, and Alla Nazimova.

Her Broadway career spanned 1910 to 1928 and included appearances in The Heart of Paddy Whack, Any House, and The Right to Kill. Her final Broadway credit was Elmer the Great, in which she appeared alongside Walter Huston and Kay Francis in 1928.

In 1916, Luckett married Kenneth Seymour Robbins of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The couple had one daughter, christened Anne Frances Robbins but known as Nancy. The marriage ended in divorce, and while Luckett continued touring with acting companies, Nancy lived with Luckett's sister's family in Bethesda, Maryland. Luckett visited her daughter there when her schedule permitted.

During a sea voyage to the United Kingdom in 1928, Luckett met Loyal Edward Davis, a Chicago neurosurgeon. They married on May 21, 1929, and Luckett relocated to Chicago with Nancy. In Chicago, she continued performing on radio programs under the name Edith Luckett Davis. Loyal Davis adopted Nancy when she was 17, legally changing her surname to Davis. Davis also had a son, Richard, from a prior marriage to Pearl McElroy, a nurse who died of cancer in 1939; Richard subsequently joined the household.

In Chicago, Luckett became active in community and charitable work. She organized the gift shop at Passavant Hospital and served on its board. She also worked with the Women's Division of the Chicago Charity Fund, eventually serving as its chairwoman from 1938 to 1963. During this period, her daughter Nancy moved to California, established her own acting career, and married actor Ronald Reagan. Reagan sent flowers to Luckett each year on Nancy's birthday to mark the occasion of her birth.

When Loyal Davis retired as Chief of Surgery in 1963, the couple moved to Phoenix, Arizona. There, Luckett volunteered with healthcare organizations including the United Cerebral Palsy Crusade and served on the board of the American Cancer Society. In 1983, she received the Arizona Lifetime Achievement Award for her service to the mentally impaired; the award was subsequently renamed the Edith Davis Award. Loyal Davis died in 1982 of congestive heart failure after 53 years of marriage, following which Luckett moved from her home to a smaller Phoenix apartment.

Luckett died on October 26, 1987, at the age of 99, from a stroke. At the time of her death, her daughter Nancy, then First Lady of the United States, was recovering from breast cancer surgery. Her funeral in Phoenix was attended by Nancy Reagan, President Ronald Reagan, and her stepson Dr. Richard Davis, among others. She and Loyal Davis are interred in the marble mausoleum at Greenwood/Memory Lawn Mortuary and Cemetery in Phoenix.